Covert Alliance

by Blair Wylie

  34

  The King and Queen of the Master colony were suddenly very unhappy.

  Until the recent disaster, when an expected, returning Warrior battlecruiser had inexplicitly exploded over the central defence facility, the Master royal family had been living a pleasant, decadent and romantic life of idle and pampered luxury.

  Their names would probably be next to impossible for a human being to mimic and pronounce properly. In the chirping, high-pitched language of the Masters, the King’s chosen name approximated something like, “Farthest-Seeing of the Most Elite.” And the Queen called herself something like, “Most Glamorous Mother of Future Geniuses.”

  Vanity was a common trait within the relatively small Royal caste. That predominant behavioural trait may not have been especially revered by the greater population of Masters, but it was definitely and purposefully overlooked.

  The King and Queen were the traditional ceremonial heads of state. They held mostly figurehead positions within the burgeoning, still colonial, but once again classical, Master society.

  The planet had proven to be mostly disappointing to the Masters. It was rather weak in natural resources, and it was bit too cold for their liking. However, after an unusually long era of pioneering and hard labour, and many frustrations, a sustainable foothold had finally been established on the planet by the Explorer and Worker caste of metre-and-a-half tall, bearded and cloned hermaphrodites.

  But thankfully, the temperate regions of the planet were relatively rich in flora and fauna, and there were many places where fresh water was abundant. A mostly agrarian economy was up and working, and no Master was hungry any more. And so far, the native environment did not seem to harbour much in the way of toxins or pathogens that could affect or infect a Master.

  A brutish, native, herbivore creature had provided genetic feedstock for a useful, re-engineered, beast of burden. It looked like a weird cross between an Earth zebra and an Earth elephant.

  However, there had been nothing on the planet that even remotely resembled a quadruped hominid. So, re-engineered, Master-like, semi-intelligent slaves were not an available resource. That proved to be both a good and bad reality.

  On the bad side, Master Workers sometimes had to perform manual labour when robotic machines were unavailable, or not completely up to a necessary task.

  And on the flip-side, there were no semi-intelligent animal competitors to worry about.

  There were however many dim-witted but nevertheless ferocious and hideous predatory beasts among the highly-diverse native carnivorous species.

  So, as soon as they could manage it, the hermaphrodite Explorers had brought the proper genetic modifiers out of hibernating cold storage, and set to work at re-manufacturing the Warrior caste of their species.

  A Warrior baby started life in a laboratory. A genetically-modified sperm cell was injected into a genetically-modified egg cell. The tiny fusion of egg and sperm was then placed in the womb of a hermaphrodite surrogate ‘mother’.

  Because a Warrior baby was far larger at full-term pregnancy than a hermaphroditic baby, the Warrior fetus had to be surgically removed a month or two before the full gestation period.

  The Warrior baby was then raised in a series of progressively larger and more elaborate incubators until it was a year or so old.

  Then the Warrior child would develop into adulthood inside a highly-specialized orphanage and training facility with its brethren of large, muscular and aggressive eunuchs.

  Master societies were very harsh, and very competitive. The education of a Warrior was therefore Spartan-like. There was very little if any nurturing, or intellectual mentoring. At any stage in their development, Warrior cadets that failed to come up to high, pre-set standards were put to death in a very public ceremony. This custom reinforced a simple message to all members of the colony:

  Failure of any kind simply would not be tolerated.

  So, a Warrior cadet would never experience the love of a mother or father. And it would never fall in love, and be able to procreate. But it would always relish the company of its equally brutalized comrades, and successful cadets would all eventually become Brothers-in-Arms, and a respected part of an elite corp.

  The Warrior caste had been firmly established on the planet after a few generations. The Warriors were then able to take over all of the armed-service duties within the Defence Ministry.

  When that transition occurred, the colony’s hermaphrodite Council Leaders then set about recreating the Ruler caste of Masters.

  The Explorer and Worker caste had to use a completely different set of genetic modifiers for their Ruler caste development project. The process was almost the same as the one used to produce Warrior babies.

  But to successfully produce a Ruler baby, at various stages of development, the fetus in the womb had to be injected with additional genetic modifiers.

  The process was very involved, and often failed miserably.

  But in the end, the Workers successfully managed to create seven unique male-female ‘couples’. Each couple then formed the nucleus of a self-sustaining Royal family.

  The initial group of Royal babies were raised in an exclusive, highly-sophisticated orphanage. Unless there were special health issues, subsequent generations of Royal babies were raised in traditional Royal family settings by their natural parents, or rather by professional Worker servants assigned to the Royal household.

  So, members of the Royal caste could have sexual intercourse. And they liked to do that, a lot. The Master Royals of antiquity were by disposition polygamous, and it was difficult for most re-created Royals to live up to the historical monogamous expectations.

  The schooling of a Royal mostly centred on the Arts. They learned to play musical instruments, and they performed the many classical compositions for each other. They also learned how to create physical art forms, and they decorated their palaces with their works. And they functioned as architectural and aesthetic critics within the greater Master society.

  But a Royal was not an especially fertile or intelligent member of the Master species. In time, though, each Royal family slowly grew in numbers through natural selection, and sometimes through deliberate cross-breeding to generate and maintain healthy offspring.

  Over a number of generations, it was thought that the re-created Royal caste probably approximated the original, diverse, two-sex form of the original Masters on the Mother planet.

  But what the colonial Masters referred to as their ‘Archaic Era’ was far too distant in both time and space to remember properly, even with the help of elaborate historical databases.

  The members of the hermaphrodite Worker and Explorer caste were always by far the predominant variant within the Master species. They performed most of the societal support functions. They were also the intelligentsia, and the keepers of all archival data.

  In addition, the Workers were always the assigned crew members on space exploration ventures.

  Also, and most importantly, the Worker and Explorer caste always remained in ultimate control. They ran the real government.

  There were seven bureaucratic Ministries in their government, including Defence, which the Warrior caste now essentially managed according to their own command and control system. The other traditional Ministries were Resource Exploitation, Health and Nutrition, Infrastructure and Energy, Information and Knowledge, Security and Justice, and Galactic Expansion.

  There was also a ruling Council of seven hermaphrodite Ministers. The Council Leader represented the Defence Ministry, and was respectfully referred to as Commander-in-Chief.

  A Warrior could never be a member of the ruling Council.

  Usually, a councillor had previous experience as a Deputy Minister. The Council nominated its own candidate replacements, and then they consummated each promotion to the ruling table via a secret ballot process. The Council also decided who would be their leader, by unanimous agreement, through a series of elimination, secret-ballot elections
.

  When their colony had been fully established according to historical Master norms, the Council Leader was no longer called Commander-in-Chief. Rather, the Council Leader assumed a title that roughly translated as ‘Prime Minister’.

  And the Council itself changed its name to something like, ‘The Cabinet’.

  The hermaphrodite Prime Minster was immensely powerful. One of its functions was to decide which of the seven noble families would be the ruling family. And the prime minister could change its mind at any time. This led to a lot of entertaining infighting, intrigue and scandals within the Royal families. But it was thought that active competition within the Royal caste would foster a healthier, more vibrant greater society. The continual conflict usually ensured that the King and Queen were reasonably competent, and enthusiastic about their mostly ceremonial roles.

  The King and Queen supposedly had veto power over important matters of state. In this capacity, the pair functioned as a sort of democratic ‘Senate’, which could occasionally suggest, ‘sober second thought’. And so, the prime minister was supposed to at least consult with the King and Queen before formally announcing that a decision had been made by the Cabinet.

  But of course, only the Cabinet knew for sure what matters it had discussed, and decided upon.

  Usually, however, the prime minister very transparently and very precisely followed to the letter the elaborate, established process of consultation with the King and Queen. Historically, the primary goal of the prime minister was to maintain peace and tranquility, and project the semblance of a democratic, self-critical government with built-in checks and balances.

  So, it was no surprise really when the current prime minister asked for a consultation meeting with King Far Seeing and Queen Glamorous.

  The King and Queen accepted the prime minister’s request, of course, but to them, it was always unfortunate when something unplanned disturbed their comfortable, typically self-serving, daily routine.

  The prime minister was escorted into the Royal Chamber by two immaculately uniformed Warrior guards. The King and Queen were seated on magnificent, intricately-molded, highly polished, solid platinum, side-by-side thrones on a metre-high dais.

  They did indeed look regal! They were both relatively tall creatures when standing erect, at slightly over two metres in height. And they had perfectly symmetrical, very handsome faces. Their skin was very dark and unblemished, and their shoulder-length hair was a lustrous strawberry-blond.

  The prime minister was the only member of Master society allowed to directly engage the King and Queen in conversation. However, the prime minister was required by law to avoid eye contact with a bowed head until formally addressed.

  Because this was an unscheduled, ad hoc meeting, to express their annoyance, the King and Queen made the prime minister wait an unusually long period of time before acknowledging its presence inside the Royal Chamber.

  Finally, after only a quick glance at the prime minister, the Queen chirped bluntly and crudely, “Well, what is this about?”

  The prime minister paused an unusually long moment before replying, to express its displeasure at this obvious show of disrespect. Then it said calmly, “Your Most Royal Majesties, thank you for the opportunity to speak to you with so very little notice. But there have been some recent developments. And these developments are a bit confusing, and perhaps rather alarming.

  “If you recall, about a week ago, there was a horrible incident when a returning Warrior battlecruiser seemingly went out of control and subsequently exploded directly over our main defence base on the other side of our planet. As a result of that catastrophe, we have lost about half of our Warrior contingent, and about half of our overall space-monitoring and defence capability.

  “The explosion resembled a nuclear detonation, in that it created a shock wave, an intense heat wave, and a destructive electromagnetic pulse. It immediately killed thousands of Masters, not just Warriors, and thousands more were seriously burned or wounded. Many of those injured Masters will also die.

  “The electrical power distribution system on Continent Two was severely damaged, and it will take us months to repair that damage. Also, a plume of ash and somewhat toxic gases now encircles our plant within the upper atmosphere. As a result, we expect a slight drop in the intensity of solar radiation at ground level, and therefore a drop in global atmospheric temperatures for a year or so. Therefore, some crops could fail, and we will probably have to manage food shortages in some places.

  “We are still gathering the data we require to develop a full recovery plan. But we sincerely believe we will fully recover if we manage things properly.

  “Now, if you also recall, because of the relative scarcity of resources, our colony has only ever managed to build a fleet of seven space battlecruisers. And those battlecruisers have been away on multi-generation missions during most of the history of the colony.

  “Since we have never been directly threatened from space, our long-term goal, from long before the start of your reign, has been to complete our first exploration, generation spaceship.

  “We were greatly looking forward to the return of the seven-cruiser Warrior Armada that has been away on a search-and-destroy mission for centuries. We understood that the mission was a complete success, according to the transmissions we received centuries ago.

  “It is therefore a great mystery to us why only one of the seven battlecruisers apparently accomplished the successful return journey. Transponder telemetry has confirmed that the returning vessel was indeed Battlecruiser Number 7, which our historical records show was also the Flagship of the Armada.

  “The only intra-star-system transmission we received from the returning battlecruiser was a distress signal. It indicated that the vessel had been severely damaged after a collision with what it called an ‘ice ball’ in the outer reaches of our stellar system. The probability of such an event occurring is extremely low, but admittedly possible.

  “A few one-Warrior scout ships may have managed to escape the catastrophe. But if that occurred, our ground-based and satellite-based monitoring systems failed to detect them.

  “Of course, we were all greatly, ah, distracted, by the horrific explosion of the battlecruiser.

  “We have not yet heard anything from non-registered Warrior scout ships. This may confirm that they do not in fact exist.

  “But to be thorough, in time, when our abilities have been fully restored, we will conduct systematic ground searches for intact or destroyed Warrior scout ships. However, those search efforts will have to be made over the entire surface of the planet, and also within the region of space directly surrounding our planet. So, this systematic search exercise will probably require years to complete.

  “Meanwhile, to allow us to recover more quickly, we have temporarily suspended the construction of our exploration, multi-generation space vessel. If we find we can resume geosynchronous orbital construction operations in a year’s time, we estimate completion of the massive and highly complex vessel about eleven years from now, assuming we do not experience another unexpected and devastating calamity.

  “To close our discussion for today, Your Majesties, do you have any questions, or perhaps some words of wisdom to guide us, or perhaps to inspire us, during this very difficult time?”

  The King and Queen had been listening attentively with their mouths agape. Now they looked at each other in obvious confusion and fear. Finally, the King asked quietly, “How will this directly affect us?”

  The prime minister could not help visibly recoiling with disgust at the King’s blunt and stupid question. It said to itself, “What selfishness! And what the hell good are these useless creatures?”

  But then the prime minister remembered the only message it really wanted to deliver to the Royal pair, and it calmly replied, “We will ensure that your personal well-being will be mostly unaffected, Your Majesties. But we will no doubt be asking you to make more frequent public appearances, on televisio
n of course, to help us restore morale within our society, and inspire us all to work harder.”

  The Queen huffed and snorted in response, and then chirped harshly with obvious distain, “Well, if we absolutely must, we must, I suppose. Now, this has been a most distressing conversation, Prime Minister, and most annoying! You can now leave our esteemed presence, so we can deal with more important matters!”

  The prime minister decided it had experienced more than enough disrespect from these two snobbish fools.

  So, it simply backed out of the Chamber, with many pauses to fully bow from the waist. It knew the well-established routine, and it gave the impression of fully respecting it, even though it found all royal intercourse to be tedious and demeaning.

  35

  The colonial Cabinet met as all Master hermaphrodite leadership councils had met, in any societal situation, for eons upon eons.

  The colonial government Cabinet Chamber was circular and completely dark. The six ministers and the prime minister stood for their meetings around a circular table with a diameter of about four metres. The centre pedestal of the thick, dark-black, dull-finished, solid aluminum table was positioned in the exact centre of the room.

  The prime minister stood on a quarter-metre-high dais, so its head was slightly higher than the other six ministers, or ‘Speakers’, as they traditionally called themselves in their meetings. A low-intensity, spherical, yellow-white lamp was positioned over the exact centre of the table, about half-a-metre higher than the head of the prime minister.

  Everyone wore identical, form-fitting, flat-black coveralls so that only their pale, bearded faces could be seen. And everyone trimmed their head of short black hair, and their full black beard, exactly the same way.

  Their positioning around the table was fixed, and sometimes that was the only way to remember who was saying what.